Floriography, the sending of secret messages via coded flower arrangements, was popular during the Victorian Era (between 1837 and 1901). But it was probably invented a lot earlier. Plants have been used as symbols for thousands of years.
More complex arrangements sending specific messages might have originated from the court of Constantinople in Ottoman Empire in the 1600s. From there it said to be introduced to England in 1717 by Mary Wortley Montagu, and to the Swedish royal court by Aubry de La Mottraye in 1727.
The French created their own dictionary in 1819 when Louise Cortambert, writing under the pen name ‘Madame Charlotte de la Tour’, wrote Le langage des Fleurs.
In 1884, Kate Greenaway published The Language of Flowers, with these definitions of each flower. Why not send a secret message to someone you love with an arrangement, based on what you learn here?
